Wizard of the Deep Sea

TL/ED – Miso

Royal Road. There is such a term.

If you take it literally, it means the King’s Way, but in the sports world, it’s used with a different meaning.

When a rookie debuts, it refers to winning the very first tournament they participate in that year.

It has to be international. It has to be the first tournament of the rookie’s first year. There are many differing details, but it’s a term reserved for rookies who deliver unbelievable performances.

The problem right now, however, is that there’s no clear goal of winning.

In that case, the objective would be to gather as many rewards as possible.

“How many of those World-Sealing Pills are there?”

“If it’s the ones in the swamp, about 500…”

“What, that’s all?” He opened the book and looked through the missions. The higher-ranked ones easily went beyond several hundred; if that was all, it was certain they’d be snatched away.

Damyu answered cautiously.

“I’m not the only one acting as a storage. It’s divided.”

“…That’s an annoying method. Is it divided to reduce the risk of betrayal?”

“That’s not it.”

She said that and shook her head with a slightly fearful expression.

“Even if we kill, we kill each other, not the Upper Tier members. Whether it’s a warehouse or not, we can’t betray them.”

“…Why?”

Come to think of it, if Damyu was in charge of the storage, she could have taken out the World-Sealing Pills from the swamp before drowning, but she didn’t.

The reason was simple.

“In that case, I’d rather… die.”

A fear worse than death.

Looking into her darkened eyes, I turned my gaze back to the book.

I can dig into the details later. There are more important things right now.

While looking through the missions, I found one that had a two-person limit and offered 1,500 World-Sealing Pills, but no one had applied for it.

Even the distance was close. I showed it to Damyu and asked,

“What’s this? Lemin Subjugation? It’s in the neighboring city. Won’t take even ten minutes.”

“Ah, don’t do that one.”

Damyu shook her head.

“There’s an organization called Lemin that has a tight grip on the Underworld of that city. But they don’t swear loyalty to Crimson Circle, and they’ve killed all the members sent to negotiate peace.”

“Hmm, can’t I just do this one?”

Looking into the details, it turned out they were vile criminals who sold natural-born wizards as slaves and murdered commoners at will, to the point that even the Empire had put a bounty on them.

If it’s someone like that, I wouldn’t feel anything even if I killed them. But Damyu recoiled in horror and shook her head.

“No. The boss of Lemin is a former Knight.”

“Knights don’t mean anything to Fallen.”

“…To be precise, he was a Heaven’s Judgement Knight. Though he’s much weaker compared to his prime.”

“What? Wait, how does a Heaven’s Judgement Knight end up as a crime boss?”

I asked again, full of disbelief. Weren’t the Heaven’s Judgement Knights created to capture fallen knights? What happens if one of them falls?

“I don’t know the details either… but I heard he earned the Princess’s hatred.”

“Ah.”

If it’s something like that, I get it. I wrote my name on the mission and threatened Damyu, who was trying to stop me.

“You take out your book and write too. It says we can start with just two people.”

Damyu flailed and shook her head.

“No, I said he’s a Heaven’s Judgement Knight?? This is way beyond what we can handle. Originally, the Upper Tier members should take care of this, but for some reason, they’ve been so busy lately that the mission got downgraded… Getting only 1,500 World-Sealing Pills for capturing a Heaven’s Judgement Knight doesn’t add up. If we had the ability to handle something like this, we’d take on something much easier-”

“No.”

I shook my head.

In the end, the standards for reaching the Upper Tier are extremely vague.

You’re supposed to get noticed while completing missions and then be tested… If you just carry out missions normally, it doesn’t mean much.

If that’s the case, there’s no point in just living off World-Sealing Pills like the others by doing easy missions.

I need to take a path that stands out, something no one else has taken.

“There’s a reason, so just follow me.”

More than anything.

“I have a way.”

I had once taken down someone even worse than a Heaven’s Judgement Knight.

*

‘Is this guy insane?’

Damyu couldn’t believe the overwhelming feeling of confusion as she watched Jern pull out a mask from his coat and put it on.

If he knew what a Heaven’s Judgement Knight was, he should also know their combat power.

The fact that he reached the conclusion of fighting one was something she just couldn’t understand.

On top of that, he had threatened to take her World-Sealing Pills if she didn’t write her name down, so she had ended up tearfully registering for the mission right in front of him. There was no turning back now.

They absolutely had to deal with Lemin. If not, it would be considered desertion, and she wouldn’t be able to receive any World-Sealing Pills for a month.

That meant death. And of course, this young monster was overestimating his own power.

In the end, Fallen can’t fully control the World. They display near-invincible strength against lower-level enemies, but if it’s not just any knight but a Heaven’s Judgement Knight.

Even members of the Upper Tier can’t easily deal with them.

“Y-you should reconsider while there’s still time.”

Naturally, the only outcome would be death. The only way left was for Jern to change his mind, so she tried desperately to stop him, but she was startled when Jern’s form, now masked, suddenly changed into that of an adult man.

At the same time, all her doubts were cleared. Damyu’s head nodded in understanding.

“…So this is your true form.”

Of course, if he were really an eleven-year-old child, he wouldn’t be able to control the World that perfectly.

This adult form was his true self, and even the decline he showed before had been a deception.

Jern looked at her with a somewhat dumbfounded expression, then slowly nodded.

“Yeah. This is the real me. Then, let’s get going.”

Saying that, he suddenly started descending the mountain slope.

Seeing how he didn’t even acknowledge her, Damyu’s vertical pupils narrowed slightly.

‘Should I ambush him?’

Somehow stealing the Mission Book and forcing him to abandon the mission was the only way she could survive.

But her hand soon dropped limply.

‘…No.’

If he could control the Great World so perfectly, a half-hearted ambush would only bring death.

If she was guilty of anything, it was being fooled by his appearance. She should’ve just given a vague explanation and run away.

Clutching her tightening chest, she hurried after him, and before she knew it, they had arrived at the city where Lemin was hiding.

Jern tilted his head slightly, watching the oddly swaggering guards.

“What’s with them? Are they allowed to act like that?”

“Huh…?”

“The toll’s kind of extreme. It’s double what it is in the Capital. I don’t think this city is that… well-maintained.”

“Y-you can see that?”

The guards were at a distance where they appeared very small. Under normal circumstances, it would be hard not just to hear but even to see them clearly.

Jern shrugged and replied.

“My hearing’s good. Got any money?”

“If it’s regular money…”

Damyu cautiously pulled a few gold bars out of the swamp and offered them.

Jern, with a skeptical expression, touched one of the gold bars, then gasped.

“Wait, this is real gold.”

“Y-yes?? Yes. They’re real gold bars.”

“You’re okay with just handing these over?”

“Th-they’re not… that valuable, are they?”

Damyu replied as she looked at Jern instead.

No matter what she bought with this money, what kind of people she hired, or what she used it for, ultimately, it wouldn’t mean much.

In hell, gold doesn’t hold much value.

“I see…”

Jern nodded as he slipped the gold bar into his pocket.

“Still, I can’t hand something like this over to the guards. It might raise suspicion.”

“Then-”

“Just wait a moment.”

Jern looked down toward the base of the wall.

For about five minutes.

“…Um.”

Just as Damyu, growing uneasy from his unmoving stance, was about to speak again, his mouth opened.

“Found it.”

“Huh?”

“Don’t know if it’s because they never repaired the wall or if they just left it on purpose… but there’s a back hole. We’ll go in through there.”

“??”

Damyu began to consider the possibility that Jern was suffering from Burden-induced madness.

She didn’t realize that wasn’t the case until she followed him around the wall and saw that there really was a large hole big enough for an adult man to easily pass through.

“There really is one…?”

“Must be for smuggling. Go a little further in, and there are signs of people.”

He spoke with the certainty of someone who had already seen it.

Damyu let out a sigh of relief.

‘Good thing I didn’t ambush him…’

If she had, she would’ve died.

Whatever method it was, Jern could perceive the details of an area spanning nearly hundreds of meters. He would have easily noticed any ambush.

Is this what the Great World is like for all of them? As Damyu was wondering, she flinched in shock when she saw him stride into the back alleys of the city.

“W-what are you doing??”

“We need to finish the job quickly. From the looks of it, the city’s public order is a mess.”

Jern frowned as he looked at the desolate city.

“Looks like even the city’s lord has been almost completely taken over. This is pretty serious.”

“Huh?”

“Over there in the next block, thugs are collecting protection fees, and the guards are turning a blind eye like they haven’t seen a thing. Judging by the fact that there’s not even a hint of discomfort in their expressions, that Lemin guy must be the real master of the city.”

“Y-yes, that’s right.”

“Judging by the smuggling hole, it’s not completely taken over yet. Looks like the lord’s side is still using various means…”

He looked up at the gray sky with a grim expression.

“If I deal with Lemin, Crimson Circle will end up taking over the city?”

“I-I guess so?”

“Nothing much would change then.”

Leaving behind those cryptic words, Jern headed back into the alleys behind the estates.

Damyu desperately blocked his path.

“Even if you really do plan to fight Lemin, you have to ambush him! A frontal assault won’t work…!”

“I will.”

Jern’s footsteps were silent.

And he didn’t encounter anyone.

“-Shh.”

[Shit, I couldn’t meet today’s offering quota again.]

[What the hell am I supposed to do if it physically doesn’t exist, damn it…]

Whenever someone seemed close, Jern would sense it first and stop.

This kind of situation repeated over and over, and Damyu had no choice but to rethink everything.

‘…No way.’

This wasn’t about seeing or hearing things far away.

It was like he had placed the world in his palm and was perceiving everything that happened on it. That was the only way she could understand it.

Damyu felt as though someone high above the sky was looking down on her.

An unbelievable ability. With just that, no one who lived in fear of their Burden would dare challenge him.

Members would gladly offer dozens of World-Sealing Pills just to use Jern’s World for even an hour.

“What on earth…”

Damyu couldn’t even begin to imagine what kind of World could do that.

What frightened her even more was, she still had no idea what his Burden was.

“There it is.”

Jern came to a stop, not in front of a lavish mansion or a fortress teeming with guards, but near a shabby slum.

Damyu looked around with a disbelieving expression.

“H-here? But Lemin must be living in luxury…”

“You said he’s killed multiple Fallen, right? Seems he at least knows that Crimson Circle has targeted him.”

True enough.

If it weren’t for Jern, no other member would have even thought Lemin might be living in a place like this.

Jern stared at one of the houses and came to a halt.

“He’s definitely a Heaven’s Judgement Knight. I can’t see him clearly.”

“T-this is enough.”

Damyu whispered into Jern’s ear, trying hard to suppress her pounding heart.

“With this information, if we negotiate well, we can lure a Fallen who has a World capable of killing the hiding Lemin in one strike. Leave that to me!”

“Then it’s meaningless.”

Jern shook his head lightly and raised his hand.

“And that’s not going to work.”

“W-why not?”

“He’s already noticed us.”

“ㅡ”

“Looks like they’ve been waiting. The plan must’ve been to strike the moment I walked in like a fool, then flee, Flee? A Heaven’s Judgement Knight trying to run, huh. Guess he really has gotten a lot weaker.”

Hearing Jern’s mutterings, Damyu clenched her teeth tightly.

She realized, if that was true…

‘I’m dead.’

At this distance from a Heaven’s Judgement Knight, whether or not there’s a flimsy slum door in between is meaningless.

It’s practically like a blade is already at her throat. Whether Jern realized it or not, he calmly gave an order.

“Fall back.”

“…N-no, I can’t.”

“Why?”

There was still a corner left where she could struggle.

Damyu hurriedly explained.

“If we try to retreat without attacking, they’ll realize we’re not an assassination squad but a scouting team. And if they realize we’re scouts, they’ll immediately come out. To extract whatever information we have…”

“…Hmm.”

Jern nodded.

“That makes sense.”

“So, what we have to do now is throw out a flashy illusion that looks threatening, then escape as far as we can while they’re trying to figure it out… I-if we don’t do that.”

“Alright, let’s see how it goes.”

She didn’t even have time to stop him.

Jern began backing away as if he were retreating.

“You damn-”

-KWAANG!

Before Damyu could finish her curse, the door exploded.

A middle-aged man with clenched teeth charged forward faster than a hummingbird, wielding a greatsword larger than his own body.

“Hhhup-!”

There was no cry of “die” no shout to announce battle, no theatrics.

Lemin aimed straight for Jern’s head with the deadliest strike he could deliver, without underestimating his enemy for a second.

From Damyu’s perspective, there could only be one outcome. Jern’s head bursting like a watermelon, followed by her own.

Lemin saw a similar outcome.

In other words, the only one who saw something different was Jern.

“The world is-”

Damyu heard something whispered past her ear. But the wind was so strong that she couldn’t hear it clearly.

-KWAANG!

“!?”

And Lemin doubted his own eyes.

The blow that should have surely hit had sliced through empty air.

The mysterious assassin had taken an impossible angle, as if he had seen the future and reacted accordingly.

It was the one and only viable path.

“…Another damn freak’s come crawling in.”

But it wasn’t the first time he’d seen strange people.

Rather than feeling threatened, he felt annoyed. He swung his sword a few more times.

He knew what Fallen were. He knew they used terrifying powers.

However, in the end, everything crumbles before pure violence.

If it’s hard, break it. If it’s fast, be faster. If it attacks, dodge.

‘If I weren’t injured, someone like this…’

Lemin gritted his teeth and swung his sword.

Though he couldn’t exert even half his strength due to the wound on his abdomen from his earlier escape, his combat prowess as a Heaven’s Judgement Knight still made it possible.

Except for now.

‘…What is this?’

It was a perfect evasion, almost ridiculous in its precision.

He had definitely struck. His decades of experience as a knight, his years of killing, guaranteed that the trajectory was correct.

In every one of his attacks, that Fallen should have been split in half.

But his blade caught nothing. It hit, yet did not cut.

It was like, cutting through a bubble.

“…You bastard!”

To make it worse, the opponent was gradually getting faster. Several times faster during the fight.

Amid all this, Lemin came to a realization.

‘Those Crimson Circle bastards were serious…!’

In the end, they had finally reached out their claws to swallow his kingdom.

He had suspected it from the moment they sent assassins. It was always bound to happen.

Of course, cutting down this guy was just a matter of time. No matter how fast he moved, Lemin had succeeded in driving him into a wall.

He would kill him with the next blow. Then…

He would have to flee.

‘It can’t be helped.’

No matter how strong he was, he didn’t have the confidence to keep stopping monsters like this in his injured state.

It was still fine. He just needed to take all the money he had hoarded and move to another city, build a new kingdom while his wounds healed.

‘Once I recover, I’ll pay them back.’

He had the power to do that. Having steeled himself, he looked at Jern with his back against the wall and smiled.

“Fidgety little rat. Let’s see if you can dodge this one too.”

“…”

Jern wore a displeased expression.

It was a negative emotion, but not the kind shown by someone facing their end.

-He had a companion. He glanced back briefly, but Damyu was just standing there, mouth agape, staring blankly at the scene.

Starting with this one wouldn’t be too late, Lemin thought, and swung his sword down.

“That bastard Lump, what the hell kind of Knight did he use against me?”

“…?”

Lemin couldn’t understand Jern’s grumbling.

But that didn’t really matter.

Compared to the fact that Jern was grumbling at all.

“What the…!”

Lemin inhaled sharply, truly flustered.

Why isn’t he dead?

He had sliced him. This time, there was no viable escape route, and no matter how fast he was, it had been a sure-kill strike that would inevitably lead to death.

Yet all Jern did was look up at him with a face full of disbelief.

“Even regular Heaven’s Judgement Knights can’t last a minute.”

Only then did he realize.

The reason Jern hadn’t died, was because his sword had stopped moving.

His entire body was frozen, gripped tightly by an invisible force, as if he had been turned into a mounted specimen.

“Guh.”

He couldn’t even scream. He couldn’t breathe.

Slowly, his armor and muscles, his skin and bones, his internal organs, were being crushed.

But there was something worse than the fear of death.

‘W-what the hell is this…!’

Alongside the world he knew, he caught a glimpse of another dimension.

A place dark, cold, filled with incomprehensible monsters lying in wait.

An unbearable hell shimmered in his eyes.

“Tsk.”

“…”

Their gazes met.

Defeat was certain, but that wasn’t the important part.

Lemin simply wanted to escape from this place.

‘Please…’

Watching Jern reach out and snatch away his sword with a look of pity, Lemin begged.

‘…Quickly.’

[——?]

Let that sword pierce his throat even a second sooner.

So that his head wouldn’t end up inside the mouth of that monster, staring at him as if it were licking him with its eyes.